‘They’ve been heavily backed’ – Ben Garner highlights spending power difference between Charlton and Ipswich Town

Charlton manager Ben Garner highlighted the difference in the spending power of Ipswich Town ahead of them travelling to The Valley tomorrow.

The second-placed Tractor Boys are 14 points clear of the Addicks ahead of the clash, and Garner wants to see his side cause an upset of sorts as they look to recover from Tuesday’s 2-0 loss to Milton Keynes. 

He said: “I’ve seen [Ipswich] a few times already – a fantastic squad. They’ve invested heavily, the owners, and are fully expecting promotion. They are a really strong team. Fantastic depth – really strong squad. They’re really well coached as well. 

“Those things combined make them a really strong outfit. We look ahead to that – we need to bounce back. We need to get back to work. It will be a great game at The Valley – it should be a good atmosphere. A game where we can go and take a little bit of a scalp in this division. 

 “[Ipswich have a] huge amount in terms of their backing and finances. You look at the depth of their squad with the changes they can make with people coming in. 

“A very strong squad for League One. They’ve recruited well in terms of the profile and positions they wanted in the summer. 

“We’re having to do things a bit of a different way and find ways to get results. Build a squad and create it on the training ground. We’re doing okay with that. We’d like to be doing a little bit better, but on the back of three wins before the Milton Keynes loss, we’d like to get back to that.   

“You look at Ipswich, they’ve been heavily backed for the last two seasons – an incredible amount of money has gone in and paid for players and wages. And 26,000 turn up to watch them every week. 

“It’s a huge club in the division and they’re doing great. We need to focus on us and prepare in the right way. Ultimately, it’s going to be 11 players on the pitch that will dictate the game.”